'Gangnam Style' sets world record: Gallops to 1 billion video views

On Thursday morning, "Gangnam Style" hit 1 billion views on YouTube -- becoming the first video ever to hit that milestone. To celebrate, YouTube has a little dancing Psy doing horsey moves next to his view count.

Fun!

The trend watchers at YouTube thought "Gangnam Sytle" might hit the 1 billion mark by late Friday evening or early Saturday morning. But the unstoppable power of "Gangnam Style" has surprised everyone -- including Psy -- each step of the way.

"Honestly, when I made this video I didn't even expect 1 million views, because this is off my sixth album in Korea, so I just hoped it would be huge there," the singer told MTV.

Psy's video took off in South Korea as soon as he uploaded it to YouTube in July. A few weeks later, it started to zoom around the world -- as celebrities such as T-Payne and Justin Bieber's manager, Scooter Braun, tweeted about it to their millions of followers.

Part of the video's success is its international appeal -- you don't need to understand what Psy is talking about to enjoy his smooth dance moves and his goofy sense of humor. Also, it's the kind of video most of us want to watch over and over. One guy in London has to play it every time he feeds his baby or the baby won't eat. That's a lot of views right there!

Then, of course, came the hundreds of thousands of parodies -- some of which have been viewed tens of millions of times on their own.

YouTube trend manager Kevin Allocca wrote that tributes to "Gangnam Style" are now being viewed 20 million times every single day.